Malaysia May inflation rate seen at 4.0% YOY

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian consumer prices in May were likely 4.0 per cent higher from a year earlier, a Reuters poll showed, cooling in pace for the second month in a row.

Lower fuel prices last month kept transport inflation in check, despite slightly higher food costs, the economists surveyed said. In April, annual inflation was at 4.4 per cent, after an eight-year high of 5.1 per cent in March. Malaysia’s central bank said headline inflation increased to 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 but is expected to moderate in the second half. Bank Negara Malaysia has set a 2017 inflation target of 3 to 4 per cent.